


Parasomnia

by Skullszeyes



Series: STEM [2]
Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Abandonment, Ableism, Alternate Universe, Best Friends, Betrayal, Blood, Canon Autistic Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abandonment, Child Neglect, Confrontations, Confusion, Crying, Dark, Detectives, Enemies, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Family, Friends to Enemies, Friendship, Gen, Horror, Humor, Loneliness, Loss of Control, Memories, Mental Instability, Mind Meld, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, POV Multiple, POV Third Person, Parent-Child Relationship, Psychological Horror, Psychological Trauma, Secret Organizations, Sequel, Slow To Update, Suicide Attempt, Swearing, Threats, Threats of Violence, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2020-06-25 13:11:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19746427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes
Summary: Sebastian, Kidman, and Myra have been looking for MOBIUS for over a year after Lily was kidnapped. Their search has come to a slow decline when they're forced into a machine that has warped its world from the mind's of Sebastian's former friend's, including his best friend.*Sequel to Right In Front Of Our Faces.*





	1. SEBASTIAN

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was meant to write this back in Feb, but a lot has happened, and I've finally written the first chapter. I have a bunch of ideas for this story, however, they are vague and I'm going to wing it, but I might create a vaguer outline. LOL. Hopefully you enjoy this nonetheless. :D  
> There's seven intersecting POV's, I'll also be making a page break to switch between characters.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.

The raw taste of alcohol was too familiar that it was becoming blurred out. He hoped that drinking would keep his mind occupied, but it only brought up the emotions to the brim of his patience. He hoped he didn’t have to deal with it, but talking to random patrons within the bar helped him vent. It’s been a year since his daughter was taken, a year since he hadn’t heard of Joseph, or even Ruben and Stefano. 

The guilt weighed upon his conscious, and the heavy anger stayed within his body, his mind, reminding him of what had happened. Every day, he continued to hate himself, and so the alcohol went down his throat a lot easier. He needed answers, and those answers continued to thin out his patience. Annoy him to the brink of his rage where all he could do was get into random fights with anyone who was drunk enough to lose a bit of their memory. 

Kidman would shake her head while Myra tended to his bloody and bruised knuckles. Sometimes the skin there split open, and all he could feel was the pain, drowning in it. It was easier, a lot easier than sleep, then waking up, then taking out his cigarette pack and lighting one up in the back yard, or outside of the bar. 

“We’ll find her,” Myra said, her voice always sturdy as she looked him in the eyes. It wasn’t great the first few weeks, or even months. Myra was as much of a wreck as he was, but she didn’t break like he did. She didn’t pick up the bottle of whiskey and downed it. There were days when she poured herself a glass, and drank it slowly while they tried to figure out their plans to find MOBIUS.

“They don’t want us to find them,” Kidman said one evening.

“I don’t give a shit,” Sebastian would say, already getting to his feet and the world would tilt, “they took my little girl! They took Joseph, and you’re just giving up!”

Kidman’s stoic expression would twist into rage, yet reeled in by patience under the water of her indoctrination from her previous time with MOBIUS. Her time spent in their midst had lowered her inhibitions to rage. It was always there, enough to calm Sebastian down, for her to fight him, and force him to see reason. 

“We’ll find her, and Joseph,” she said, her voice firm as Sebastian plopped down into his seat, hands placed to the sides of his head. He would start shaking, but never cry. With every emotion that pulled and pushed him to that brink, he hadn’t cried once. Even how much he thought of Lily being alone with those monsters.

Now, he sat in the bar, slowly drinking his glass of Whiskey when Kidman slid into the booth, her hands on the table and their eyes met. 

“We have company,” she said, which surprised him by her serious tone, and calm eyes. 

“Of what kind?” he asked her.

Kidman smirked, an unusual expression, but one she knew Sebastian would enjoy. “The kind we’ve been looking for.”

Sebastian set down his glass and smirked right back at her, “Finally.” 

Sebastian got up from the table and Kidman watched as he stumbled toward the bar counter where he paid for his drink. They walked out onto the dreary street that was wet from a previous downpour that had happened not too long ago. 

“Where are they?” he asked her.

“I noticed them when I walked through Kensington Park,” she told him, stuffing her slim hands into her coat pockets, “they made it easy to spot them.”

“Black coats, shades, notable intentions besides lying business dealers?” he asked, not in a way of mocking, just trying to supply some kind of cliche image in his head. 

Kidman snickered, “In some way, yes. I left Beacon after visiting Leslie—”

“How is he?” Sebastian asked. He hadn’t meant to cut her off, he was also worried for Leslie Withers, who had been kidnapped before thanks to Ruben testing out his machine on him, and later on, by MOBIUS. He was easily frightened, and since last year, Leslie hasn’t been doing a great time of dealing with what he had gone through. He’s become paranoid and indecisive to a large extent. Kidman was able to calm him down, and even Sebastian’s presence helped. 

Apparently from the doctors and nurses, there have been odd visitors within Beacon, and a few new patients. Sebastian and Kidman wanted Leslie to stay away from certain people, afraid that MOBIUS wanted to kidnap him again and use him for Ruben’s machine. 

“Why can’t we take him out of there?” Sebastian had asked both Kidman and Myra after a week since Lily was taken by MOBIUS. 

“He needs extensive care within a psychiatric facility,” Myra had told him, frowning at Sebastian, “Leslie will be fine, we’ll visit him as much as we can, and make sure he doesn’t come to harm like what he had to deal with.”

He wanted to take Leslie out of Beacon. He was hoping he could sometime that year, but Leslie was still having episodes. He promised that Leslie had a place at their home once the doctors deemed him stable enough to leave the hospital. Until then, he had regular visits. 

Kidman smiled. “Leslie’s doing fine. He barely suffers from any episodes, and he talks with the other patients.”

Sebastian nodded, slightly relieved. “What do you think about the people who are following us?” 

“They aren’t hiding,” Kidman said, “which makes me think they want us to know. I already phoned Myra, told her we’re returning to the house. First thing’s first, we should get rid of our tail.”

Sebastian agreed, and they turned down a corner. He glimpsed behind them, and Kidman was right, there were people following them. He had asked her once if she was ever paranoid about MOBIUS. Kidman said they know where they are and who they’re with, they can tap into the phones, and possibly have cameras within the house. She wasn’t as paranoid as she thought she was going to be. 

“It’s expected,” she responded with a shrug.

Sebastian had checked the house several times whenever they left throughout the year. He also told them that they shouldn’t spend too much time on the phone in case it was tapped. He wanted to make sure that none of them were inevitably kidnapped if it ever came to it.

Myra had called him ridiculous but complied with his wishes. 

He also told them to wear less distinct clothing under their coats, and pack something light in case they needed to disguise themselves. 

Kidman had rolled her eyes, but did as he told them too. He knew he was being ridiculous, but he wanted to make sure they were safe. The three of them also knew how to fight and shoot a gun. He was also impressed that Kidman was extremely observant, and calm under pressure. She reminded him she was part of MOBIUS for several years before she joined up with the KCPD. 

“You could’ve been a good detective,” he told her one evening, holding a glass of Whiskey. 

Kidman had rolled her eyes and smiled. “I was a runaway, a kid on the street, before MOBIUS turned me into their loyal subordinate. I don’t think being a detective is what was cut out for me. Either way, Sebastian, I’m glad I’m on your side instead of theirs.”

There were days when he thought about Joseph way too much. And not just him, but also Stefano and Ruben. He had looked at them as friends. They _ were _ his friends and they had betrayed him without a second thought. They didn’t care, and day by day, they revealed what was under the layers they covered themselves in. 

He wanted to find them as much as he wanted to find his daughter and Joseph. 

Sebastian and Kidman crossed the street where they entered an alley. It was void of people and cars. A good enough place in case they’re confronted, and possibly a worse place if these people decide to kill them for MOBIUS. 

They had been looking for them for an entire year. It was only a matter of time that they did, but he had also hoped that MOBIUS would simply come for them. It would make things easier. 

He had suspected Ruben would’ve liked to have gone back to his STEM machine below Beacon, but since he was found out, the place was taken a part and blocked off. 

“Don’t get shot, old man,” Kidman commented, her hand inside her coat where it was gripping the handle of her gun. 

Sebastian clicked his tongue. “Don’t mock me.” And his own weapon was pulled out and they both turned, the guns facing the two men that was following them. They stopped the second they were confronted, their gazes flickering into dissatisfaction. 

Sebastian’s lips curled, “Well, didn’t think you’d take your time to come after us.” 

“Don’t make it sound like we didn’t know where you were this entire time,” one of the men spoke, taking off his shades and revealing blue eyes, he tucked the folded shades into his coat, his brows pinched as he stared at Kidman with disdain. “We should’ve had the orders to kill a traitor.”

Kidman smirked at that. “Since you’re telling the truth, why don’t you answer a few more questions for us. Why the hell are you making yourselves known now?” 

The two men glanced at one another before returning their gazes to Sebastian and Kidman. “Because we were told too,” the first man to the left said, his voice deadpan, and his black hair framed his face. 

The second chuckled, pushing back blonde strands, “And that this entire wait was to finally see that it works.”

Works? What the hell were these assholes talking about?

“Quit talking cryptic, asshole,” Kidman said, her hand tightening on the gun. Maybe she wasn’t so patient after all. “And tell us what the fuck you guys are talking about?”

“The machine has been rebuilt, perfected,” the first said, “and the Administrator wants candidates to test it out.”

“If it’s so fucking perfect, then why does he want it tested out?” Sebastian asked. There was more to this than what these two are talking about. 

“Your old friends are inside the machine,” the blond man said, smirking at Sebastian’s faltering expression before it hardened, “including Joseph, your daughter, and Leslie Withers.”

Kidman shook her head, “No. He’s at Beacon, you didn’t take him!”

“My daughter is inside that fucking machine again?” Sebastian asked, glaring heavily. “My daughter...who is five...six years old...with those bastards!”

The two men smiled, and Kidman shot one of them which wiped it off their face, and when she rushed over as the second man moved away from her next shot. Sebastian felt the world tilt to the side, he called out Kidman’s name as a ringing was heard in his ears, something that reminded him of static from a radio.

“Kidman…” he called, and he fell to the side, watching as she also landed on the ground with a gun pointed at her. Everything quickly gone black as he thought of Lily.

_ Please, not my daughter, not Lily, she can’t be inside STEM with...them. _


	2. LILY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily finds Leslie, but they're confronted by their fears in the forms of her father's friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey. I really hope you like this chapter. I was actually going to cut it in half with two different pov's, but I decided to continue writing Lily's chapter. :D She's one of the seven who get's their own POV. So, hopefully you don't mind reading from her perspective. LOL. Althought, I don't normally write from children's pov's that much, and I did try to make it as simple as I could, but oh wells. HAHA.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.

Lily blinked open her eyes and sat up. It was a nightmare. She knew it was, somewhere in the recesses of her mind told her it was. The bed beneath her squeaked with her movements, the springs old and worn out.

She looked around the room. They had taken her somewhere else. She wasn’t home, and she certainly wasn’t inside the white room where they had kept her. She asked questions, and listened to what they had to say. Her father always said that she had to listen to the adults, but these people weren’t the type that were good.

Not like her mom and dad. 

A flicker, a waver, a singing inside a mirror across from her inside the dimly saturated room where sunlight poured through from the windows above. The walls were old, peeling away like paint or glue when she slowly pulled it free from her skin during class. There was also a damp smell that was strong all around her. She couldn’t ignore it. 

There was always something different about this place. A world that meshed together with pieces that didn’t fully fit together. It confused her. Gave her headaches, made her unsure of where she was and who she was supposed to talk too. 

Lily glanced to the side when she noticed something new, a person was lying several beds away from her. Unlike her, he was strapped to the bed. Slightly curled on his side, groaning through chapped lips as she made her way over to him. Curious of who he was, and smiling when she recognized him. 

“Leslie,” she said, rushing to his side and before her hands could touch him, a shock came from him, rippling throughout the room and distorting the light around them. She almost fell backwards, letting out a cry as Lily reached out for Leslie and called his name. “Leslie, wake up!”

Another pulse had shattered the lights around the room, and cracked the mirror into jagged lines. She gripped his white shirt, thin and stained with old blood and dirt. She shook him, calling out his name, and at the same time sensing something coming closer to them. 

Lily’s breath shuddered as she glanced around the room. The light from the windows were no longer bright, and the room itself had dimmed. She looked toward the wide mirror where she felt something was there, watching them. 

“Leslie,” she whimpered, a scream was stuck in her throat when she caught sight of a woman on the other side of the mirror. She was standing tall with a thin frame, while her dark hair fell along her face and moved in tendrils, several strands had even gone through the cracks of where the glass had split. “Wake up!” she screamed, and this time, the room began to shudder around her, and the woman began to sing a song on the other side while her frame began to push against the barrier of the mirror. 

“Lily…?” she was staring at Leslie who had turned over, wearing a tired expression, but then he scrambled back when he caught sight of the woman. At the same time, he realized her had restraints around his wrists and ankles that strained with his frantic movements. “No...No...No! Let me go! Let me go!” 

Lily climbed onto the bed beside him, and she grasped for the restraints around his wrists and was so shaky that it felt like she took too long to get the cuff off. Once it was off, Leslie pointed to the one at his ankle while he fumbled for the strap around his remaining wrist. She ignored the squeaky bed beneath them, and bit her lip to stop herself from crying out as she pulled at the strap, pushing it through one hole and into another before yanking the rest off of him. Leslie was already at his other ankle.

Once it was off, and he was freed, Leslie gripped her wrist in his cold shaky hand, and they slipped off the bed, their bare feet hit the ground, and he yanked her toward the double doors. They flew open before he touched them, and they were sprinting down the long hallway as the woman’s voice began to rise. 

“Leslie!” Lily couldn’t keep up, but she had too. She didn’t want to be left alone again. She knew this place, she knew its darkness, the creatures that roamed the empty places where she couldn’t hide, and  _ they  _ were always able to find her before she was forced to run again. 

“We...we have to get away…” Leslie said, looking over his shoulder with a frantic expression, and his eyes widened, he let out a whine from between clenched teeth, and his hand curled tightly around Lily’s. “We have to get away. We have to get away!” 

They were getting closer to another double doors, but these ones didn’t open right away. Leslie slammed against them, he gasped as he pushed and pushed, but they wouldn’t budge. 

He slammed his curled fingers into the metal surface. “No! Open up! Open!” Leslie called out, gasping and whimpering. 

Lily stayed close to his side, she couldn’t stop staring at the woman who was drawing closer. She moved in a strange way, flowing as if she were underwater, and other times, as if she could barely stand and walk. She sang and cried out, a screeching sound before her voice fell into a cry. 

“Leslie,” the woman sang out his name. “Leslie! Where are you?”

“No!” Leslie pushed against the door. “No. Not here, not him, not him!” He stopped, shaking as his hands stayed on the door, head lowered while he sucked in a deep breath. “Not him...”

Lily didn’t know who Leslie was thinking about, but there was one person that was on hers. He smiled a little too nicely for her to consider ever getting close to him. Even if he was her dad’s friend...inside this place, he didn’t act so friendly.

She held onto Leslie, closed her eyes, and the world rippled around them. This place wasn’t good for them, the door wouldn’t open, the woman was getting closer. She had to find another hiding spot, and she didn’t want to be alone again, not like last time.

_ Where are you...dad? _

“Lily…” 

She opened her eyes and they were no longer inside that long hallway with that strange creature. Instead, they were inside...an art gallery. A place that she had liked once, and where her father had spent time with his friends.

Lily shook her head. They weren’t his friends anymore. 

She let go of Leslie’s arm as they looked around the dark gallery. The walls were empty of portraits and paintings, but there was one exhibit that was swathed in red velvet curtains, and a podium sat on the side to indicate what the display was named, and meant from the artist. At least what her dad had told her when she asked once.

Lily frowned at what she was staring at. A combination of bodies and different pieces had been placed against it while suspended in the air. She could hear the silent cries coming from those people who were now stuck in an endless display. 

Leslie didn’t like it. He shook his head, arms brought to his chest as he mumbled and gasped. She walked towards it, ignoring Leslie calling out her name.  _ He  _ had thought this was art. She could feel it in the room. His purpose was easily heard in her ears, it pulsed in her veins. The screams of the dying women, all of them cut apart, and sown together to create this  _ art.  _

_ “Magnificent. Don’t you think?” _

Lily raised her hand toward the suspended people, and touched the barrier that kept them together, and for a moment as the barrier shattered, it was as if it there was a choked gasp before everything raised up fell to the ground in a mess of oozing parts, while the trapped voices faded away within the stale room.

She backed away from it, almost stumbling until Leslie grasped her arm to keep her from falling. The cries of the dying were no more, but she was still sad at what  _ he  _ had done. 

“That wasn’t nice,” a voice, singing between glee and irritation, sent shivers throughout her body, and seemed to have bothered Leslie as they both turned around and found the man walking towards them, holding a large knife with jagged ends, “do you know how long I had to perfect this art piece.”

“He’s here,” Leslie gasped, and Lily didn’t understand what he meant from the single man who was in the room, but it happened too fast as the floor itself began to split apart. 

The man, the one with the knife, the artist, her father’s former friend, moved away at quick speed and glared at someone to his far left. She looked, but it was too late, Leslie had already been yanked away from her, and the rumbling left her unbalanced as she fell to the side of the cracked floor while it widened.

She realized too late, her heart racing as she almost scrambled after Leslie, but was stopped by the gap. “No! Don’t leave me alone! Leslie!” There was one thing she could only recall in the time she was left inside a room by herself. Soft voices of nurses spoke to her, they tried to coax her out of her silent posture, but they couldn’t. And she didn’t want to go back to that place the moment Leslie was now on one side of the destroyed floor where nothing except darkness separated them.

“Leslie!” He stood with the other familiar person she had seen with her father. He didn’t like most people, and barely came to visit. And when she was around, he didn’t look at her and only seemed to look at Leslie, which he was doing now. 

Inside this place, he was dressed differently. He wore a long white coat, burned at the edges, and a pair of pants. Other than that, it was the opposite from what he had worn before. And his face wasn’t covered in bandages anymore. He was entirely focused on Leslie who was backing away at the sight of him. 

Ruben scowled, a look of disgust as he regarded Leslie, “I should’ve killed you.”

“Now, now, Lily, you can’t just destroy other people’s art pieces like that.” She turned at  _ his _ voice, sickly sweet. She backed away from the man she knew as Stefano. He was strolling closer to her, a smile curled on his face, while holding the large knife.

Lily backed away from him. “No.” She knew what this meant, and it hurt, and there was no one to save her or Leslie. “No!” She couldn’t help the scream from tearing from her throat. She knew what it meant, and she didn’t have her parents to help her, to save her, even when she dreamed about them everyday, and cried for them, and thought about them.

She knew what it meant.

She was going to be alone again. 

_ He  _ was going to take Leslie, and Stefano was going to take her inside a room with a locked door.

And the floor beneath her fell away, and she heard not just her own screams, but the other three, and silence occupied the space when she felt the floor again. The room she was now in was cold and musty. She didn’t care. She was alone, her legs gave away, and she crumpled and wrapped her arms around her knees, sobbing at the pain in her chest.

They left her. They weren’t coming back for her.

“Please...don’t leave me.” It was too much, the loneliness, it hurt the inside of her chest. And now Leslie was gone, and she was lost.

“Lily.” She gasped, raising her head and finally seeing where she had appeared. It happened on multiple times when they had her sleep inside a tub, strapped to it with wires and cables until she was no longer sure if anything was real.

Except the voice was clear as day inside the dark room. She knew that voice, and she wiped away the tears from her face as she got back up. 

“Mom?” she called, hesitant. 

“Lily!” This time it was her father, he was calling her name from somewhere far away. 

She sobbed and she took careful steps into the darkness. “Please! Mom, dad! Don’t leave me here!” She didn’t know where she was, but she was sure that if she kept walking, she would find them. 

Lily tried not to shiver at the sounds of sliding metal, and soft groans, as a breath escaped past her face. There was something moving around her, but she couldn’t see what it was, and it frightened her if she’d reach her hands out to touch it. Instead she kept her hands close to her chest, taking careful breathes, and careful steps within the room.

“I’ll find you,” Lily promised, venturing within the darkness, “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”


	3. KIDMAN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kidman and Sebastian wake up inside STEM, and they must find Lily and Leslie.

Kidman recalled falling through a dark void and nothing more. That everything she had built up didn’t matter anymore, and the terror of it had taken hold around her heart, and squeezed to the point she gasped when she woke up. Cold sweat layered her skin, and she glanced around her surroundings. She had expected to end up back in a MOBIUS cell, or another interrogation room.

This was not what she was expecting. She was lying on a destroyed building, if she had rolled, she would definitely have fallen off the edge. Kidman moved back and tensed when a groan rose from behind her. She turned and scrambled toward Sebastian who was lying on his stomach, brows pushed together. 

“Lily…” he whispered.

“Sebastian,” Kidman nudged his arm, “wake up, Sebastian.” He wasn’t waking up. She grit her teeth and looked out at the city they found themselves in. What she could remember was falling to the ground after the MOBIUS agents found them. And now...no...she couldn’t reject this, what she was seeing. It was real, and she hated that thought. 

“Damn it.” The city was completely destroyed, a ruinous place that was a mirror image of Krimson City, at least if it wasn’t destroyed. There was no point in denying what this was, and where they truly were.

They had strapped them up to the STEM program. They made sure they were test subjects to see if they were able to escape the ones within, or any damaging effects that would come from it. 

This was a nightmare.

“Fuck…” she checked for the gun at her side, but it was no longer there. She wasn’t even wearing the same clothes she worn before. Blue jeans, black boots, and a simple white t-shirt with a holster on her side. Sebastian was the same, he didn’t have the bags under his eyes from how much he stayed up. He mumbled Lily’s name, a clear indication that he couldn’t stop thinking about her, and that he still blames himself for what happened. 

It was a mess. Everything that went down a year ago, and Kidman thought they had the upper hand until they didn’t. It had gone south real fast, and now look where it brought them. Back into the place they didn’t want to enter, and hoped Lily wouldn’t have set foot into. 

Kidman doubted that as well. MOBIUS didn’t care, they would find results in anyway they could. That was the only thing that mattered to them. Results. Everything else was collateral damage. She would’ve been too if she didn’t make a choice to do better.

“Looks like they made a mess.”

Kidman glanced over her shoulder, arching her brows in surprise at Sebastian. He was sitting up, frowning at the devastation around them. She knew who he was talking about and smiled.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

He got up and stretched his arms. She joined him, and was surprised that he was keeping everything together. Sebastian took note of everything with a silent look. She recognized the expression from her time in the KCPD. He was always like that, going with his gut feeling more than the rules. He enjoyed bending what he had to so he can get the answers he needed, and this was no different.

“You wanted this to happen?” she asked him. 

Sebastian met her eyes and there was no smile on his face. He can sometimes be imposing, but it never pushed her away. “For Lily, I would do anything.” 

Kidman nodded, the guilt eased itself into her chest, thorns brushing against the sides, reminding her of the part she took in taking his daughter away from him and Myra. “Let’s go find her.”

“I hope she’s alright,” Sebastian said, turning around, and she followed him toward a door that sat to their far right. It was closed, and when Sebastian grabbed the knob, he opened it without any trouble. They walked through and entered a hallway. 

It was eerily quiet, but she knew now that they were within STEM, the hosts or viable minds that had control over the mindscape can sense them. Lily must know where they are, including Leslie.

She was sure that he was fine. No one was going to get to him. She had checked up on him before she met with Sebastian. Leslie was doing a lot more within the hospital, and he wasn’t having any other negative reactions towards what he experienced a year ago.

It was a long road to walk away from what happened to him, and even that guilt wouldn’t fade away. 

Kidman looked at the back of Sebastian’s head and frowned. They all had been friend’s a year ago. It was normal, simple even, and it ended when the secrets got too numerous, and had destroyed what they built. She wasn’t sure if Sebastian felt the same then and now, but since Lily was kidnapped, he no longer looked at her with suspicion. 

There was so much she hoped to fix, but being within STEM was a shock all on itself. She didn’t want to be within this place. She heard about Ruben’s invention from the Administrator. It was valuable to MOBIUS, and the briefing she got about Ruben’s interaction with the organization had been secreted away, even from agents like herself.

He had done what he had to do in the time they had given him, and he used it with absolute control. 

They were all hiding secrets from one another, but mostly from Sebastian. There was a place where they all could come together, and put on their masks in front of him, so they didn’t have to reveal what was underneath it. She would always feel guilty for what she had done to him. Even when she felt nothing the moment she confronted him with the truth. 

It made sense he wouldn’t trust her, but she would hold onto whatever trust he was willing to give now that they were inside STEM.

What did bother her was how much Stefano and Ruben hid who they were. The blood under their nails, their desires to kill in secret from one another without knowing who they were. She would consider it impressive if she wasn’t disgusted by their motives. One wanted research  _ material _ , and the other wanted to play with a knife. 

“Do you think we’ll find them?” Sebastian asked, his voice low and gruff, as it always was. “Or do you think they know we’re here.”

“By the state of the city,” Kidman said as Sebastian jumped down into hole in the ground, she was next, and landed on the bottom, Sebastian making sure she had her balance, but she was fine. “We’re probably ants to them. They know we’re here, but since they haven’t made themselves known...they must be busy.”

“If any of them,” Sebastian said, the words rolling into a growl, “touch my daughter, if they hurt her…”

She knew what he would do to them. A small part of her hoped that they would eventually find the two, possibly end this way before it began. 

“Leslie must be in here,” she said softly. “They wanted him because he’s one of the CORE subjects for the STEM program. He was also Ruben’s main test subject.”

“What does that even mean?” Sebastian asked, sounding tired. 

“It means Leslie’s brain waves must match his.”

“They are two different people…”

Kidman smiled. “Yes, they are. Leslie is nothing like Ruben, but I mean more in psychological terms.”

Sebastian nodded, and didn’t say anything.

“He must still want Leslie for his machine, maybe that’s why MOBIUS kidnapped him,” she shook her head, a pain in her heart, “and that’s probably when they saw me.”

“Don’t feel guilty, Kidman,” Sebastian said, glancing over his shoulder at her, “you wouldn’t have known.”

She frowned, “I should have. It’s sloppy, and now we’re inside this machine.  _ They  _ want them to kill us. They want us to experience this place, to figure it out or die. Either way, even if we do manage to get out, how are we going to escape MOBIUS. They must be monitoring us right—”

“Kidman,” Sebastian stopped in the hallway, giving her a disapproving look, “there’s no point in getting paranoid, or thinking that far ahead. Right now, our goal is to find Lily and Leslie.”

Kidman nodded. “Sorry, Sebastian.”

“It’s fine, but we need to keep our heads straight, and know our current objectives. We can’t focus on MOBIUS, or even Ruben and Stefano, not now anyways.” He continued walking, and she followed after.

They found a staircase that hadn’t fallen apart, and walked down to the first floor. She was still a little apprehensive about the silence around them. It was too eerie, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was being watched. 

Besides the dim hallway with random paper and broken glass on the floor, there was also a light coming from a doorway with no door. It was completely off its hinge and lying on the ground with dents and splinters along the outside of it. 

Something had gotten in, or fighting its way inside. 

They stepped past it and finally walked outside. Kidman glanced up and frowned at the tilted building, before looking off toward everything else. The building’s were completely destroyed. Glass was shattered all over the asphalt with destroyed vehicles left all over the place. The road had been elevated in several places, some tilted, some lowered, and some completely dividing from the other sections.

“How are we going to find them?” she asked softly. 

“We’ll look until we do,” Sebastian told her. 

It seemed impossible, but she wanted to keep up that hope Sebastian carried around with him, maybe it’ll rub off on her too.

They made their way along the street, trying to find a way around it before climbing onto a destroyed bus, and Kidman had to balance herself as the vehicle tilted slightly off the ledge, and they jumped onto a bus on the other side.

Sebastian grabbed her wrist and yanked her toward him as the bus began to tilt the other direction, falling into the water below them. They sprinted to the end and jumped onto the ledge before the both of them glanced over to see the bus was now sinking. 

“This is dangerous,” Kidman said, touching her holster and wished for a gun. There weren’t anyone to shoot at, and she didn’t know if killing Stefano and Ruben inside this place would completely work in their favor. 

“Come on,” Sebastian said, leading the way once more. 

Even the sun in this place was burning their skin, making them sweat. She felt restricted within her clothes, while Sebastian fanned his face. His brows were furrowed as he stopped on another ledge, and placed his hand above his eyes to keep the light from blinding him. 

“Kidman,” Sebastian called, and she came to stand next to him while he pointed toward a building in the distant. There was something off about it, but she recognized it right away.

There was a bright light coming off the building, going around and around, but she knew it even from the distance. A slow smile rose to her face. 

“It’s the only building that isn’t damaged,” Sebastian said.

Kidman nodded, “Beacon Mental Hospital.”


	4. LESLIE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie remembers his time in Beacon with Ruben, and when he was abused, but then he meets someone unexpected.

Leslie’s eyes flashed open and he sat up, scrambling around the cold darkness. The echo of his breathes pulled the room in, the sound bounced off the walls, indicating that he was alone except the dim light coming from four slits. 

Ruben. His soothing tone doctor who sometimes snapped at him, and whispered insults that weren’t typically directed at him. He smelled of antiseptic and something else, it was always under his white lab coat that was neatly pressed, that was a strong smell of its own, but Leslie could always smell something different, stronger, more potent coming from Dr. Victoriano. 

He couldn’t exactly put his finger on it until things began to change when he dragged him down into the basement of Beacon. He wasn’t meant to be down there, and he told the doctor except he ignored his protests until the needle slid into his skin, and sleep came too easily. It wasn’t the first time, nor the last, not until he found himself in another place, and Ruben wasn’t there anymore. 

Where did he go?

The room he was in reminded him of a place he had stayed before. A dark damp room with no light besides the one coming from the slits. There was only a bed, a sink, a toilet, and a raw unknown stench. 

It was not the distinct scent that came from some of the nurses when they walked the corridors. Leslie was too aware of them, the scent of joy, or other words, cigarette’s. It was worse than the antiseptic, and it clung to their white dresses that looked as nice as Ruben’s. Except they didn’t hold the same warm smell when it came to him.

Their faces were wax, including their smiles, as if they had melted and formed in that state where even their eyes had gone dead over time. He was used to it, to their whispered words, and the white of their teeth, and the smell of their clothes.

It wasn’t until one nurse had hit him across the face. The door was left ajar, and the burn sent a ripple of fear through his body. He didn’t know what to do but respond with each word she spoke in her candy sweet voice, it was turning sour with words falling from his own lips until she hit him again. 

Leslie would have liked to say this was the last time, but it wasn’t. And he would have liked to say that Ruben was different. He wasn’t. He did things differently than the nurses who got away with it. Ruben was higher than the others, and he disregarded the nurses temperament until they stepped from the room. He talked to them in low tones until Leslie had seen them clench their teeth, and force their eyes forward once Ruben walked into the room. 

Ruben did worse things to Leslie. He sedated him with medicine that ran into his body, a numbing sensation that left him lying still on the bed, soft murmurs leaving his dry mouth. He did this so Leslie wouldn’t scream or shout. So he wouldn’t fight the restraints, and tell the truth to Ruben’s lies. 

He barely knew what happened until it stopped, and the worst hadn’t yet arrived. He woke up in another place, in another world, and he felt it under his fingertips, just like now as he sat in the dark, rocking back and forth within the cold abyss of this beautiful terrible place. 

How could he explain to others that he could feel everything, and at the same time, feel cut off. As if there was something making sure he wouldn’t have full access, and he wasn’t entirely sure what it was. 

Ruben had looked the way that Leslie had smelled him before. The sensation raw becoming real, as if inside out, the reality of who he was without Beacon’s eyes on him became the implementation of what he was meant to do. He growled with fierce eyes, cursing Leslie, but while that happened, Leslie also lost sight of Lily when the man, Stefano, drew closer to her on the other side of the gap.

She did something and the environment changed, just like what he did before when he was inside...Ruben’s machine. He walked the streets, in and out of time, trying to figure out the stream of it until he was forced into his body, forced to scream until it was silenced by another needle entering his vein. 

This was different.

Lily had been there too, but her strength almost aligned itself with his, except before it wasn’t as effective until now. 

Leslie rocked back and forth, repeating her name, wondering where she is until he goes still at the slightest sound. He isn’t sure what it is, but at the same time, he’s afraid of what it could be. 

Tapping. 

It’s coming closer, but it’s not the usual sound of Ruben’s footsteps. There are times when he doesn’t make a sound at all, not unless he wants him to know that he was coming closer. Drawing fear out slowly until the inevitable forced him to realize he was trapped. 

Was this the same thing?

He stared at the door, fingers digging into his knees, heart hammering within his chest. And the tapping stopped, but the apprehensive was thick in the air. There was no voice, no breathing, and the slightest sound came with a sigh before a soft metal sound clinked with the door, and whatever it was, unlocked it. The door was pushed open, and he could barely see the outline. 

He thought it was the nurse, except it was someone else. The body frame was smaller than the nurse, and they wore a dress, their hair was a golden halo upon the dim yellow colored lights. Her face was shadowed, barely recognizable, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he even recognize her at all. 

Leslie had stopped rocking back and forth, fear stopping him from moving, a shock that caressed his skin made him shudder. 

_Who was she? Who was she? Who was she? Who was she? What is going on?_

The girl tilted her head, and he saw the outline of a smile. “Come here…” she whispered, and then she moved back, her gaze seemed focused on something down the hall and she gasped, her hand coming to her mouth as she turned back to Leslie. “Follow me. I can take you out of this place, but you have to be quiet. They’re following me.”

“Quiet,” he whispered, moving up from his sitting position and rising to his feet.

The girl nodded, but she didn’t step over the threshold. “Come on. We have to be quiet. Right now, we’re like insects, and I don’t want him noticing, _the others_ should be taking care of it.”

“The detective?” Leslie asked, stepping closer to her. He could see more of her outline, and the dress she was wearing is now blue, and she’s wearing the same wristband as he is. 

Beacon Mental Hospital.

He has never seen her before, where did she come from?

“Who are you?” he asked, hesitant. 

The girl glanced down the hall and stepped back. “I’m sorry, but you have to follow me. Okay. I can’t explain until we’re in a safe place, if he knows I’m here, and that I’m helping you. He will find us, and I won’t be able to do anything about it.”

What she talking about?

The girl shudders visibly and then sprints down the hallway to Leslie’s right, and he runs to the doorway, afraid that it’ll close, and when he looks down the one where she’s been staring at.

There’s no one there. 

Just a simple hallway leading to the nurse’s office. 

Who was she looking at?

Who is she afraid of?

Leslie heads down the hallway after the girl. A strong sense of fear overwhelms him and he calls for her, but she doesn’t appear again. The halls are different, longer, twists and turns that leave him confused. All of it abandoned, dark and left alone with cobwebs and thick layers of dust. 

The scent shifts as he walks down the stairs and he smells what it is right away. He recognizes it, and it crawls under his skin. 

Ruben.

The scent of detergent from his lab coat that was stronger than the sickly antiseptic under his bandages. The smell of dark coffee leaving his mouth when he speaks to Leslie, his chair pulled close, instructing him what they were going to do, and informing Leslie about therapy sessions, and other things Leslie wasn’t sure about. 

Compatible. 

The word echoes in Leslie’s head, and he runs down the hallway, following the steps of the girl in the dust, dirt, and grime. He follows because he hates being alone, he hates the faint memory in his head that he doesn’t want to resurface.

He hates it. 

“Please, don’t leave me!”


	5. STEFANO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stefano wanders through the halls of his past and his friendships.

This world was a wonder. A place of distorted fascination that Stefano could hardly ignore. He was exhilarated by its existence, and would love to exist within its confines for the rest of his days. At least that was the plan until two rather interesting individual’s swept their way into this beautiful, grotesque world.

Ruben advised looking for them, and without even another word, he disappeared from the destroyed room.

Stefano wrinkled his nose at the command. He was not meant to obey others, it wasn’t in his nature to do so unless there was something in it for him. And maybe after looking at the young girl with brown shoulder length hair that maybe this was about him. 

She was familiar, too much so that he knew right away she was the daughter of his former _best friend_. The thought of their friendship made him laugh as he sauntered down a long hall. The quietness would’ve disturbed many who didn’t know the full layout of this building, the twisting narrows that collided with the mind of the ones who controlled the area, and the ones who took it from them.

Lily Castellanos. 

The one who barely started everything, including the boy who Ruben hunted. 

Was he desperate to look for him, not as much as Stefano who could easily locate her without little trouble. Even if she did control the environment. They had made her a co-host of this world, and the idea of her having that much control bothered Stefano. Sooner or later, her father will find her, and he couldn’t have that, not yet.

Now, where oh where did she go?

Stefano walked along the hall, almost expecting the silence to continue until a scream cut through it. He slowed his pace and came to a stop. He was curious of where it had come from. It almost sounded like it came from the walls, seeping out then falling away.

“That wasn’t…Lily.” He had an inkling of where it had come from, but he didn’t want to think too much about it as he continued along the hall.

Like Ruben, he was also able to control the environment. From what he learned of MOBIUS, he knew how the machine performed. For someone like Stefano who entered the machine, who controlled the area around him with complete ease. He had almost questioned it until he realized how Ruben was also able to use it. There was dominance that came from pain that Ruben cemented within the structure, he made sure that it would work amongst others with similar brain patterns.

Stefano pushed open one of the doors in the hall, and when he stepped inside the dark room, the lights quickly flicked on. It brought the dull room to life. The blue carpet, the maroon colored walls, and all of its strange portraits that were similar to Stefano’s artwork, and almost empty replica's.

The screams returned, farther out, yet it pulsed, almost as if it were coaxing him closer.

Stefano hummed as the walls darkened around the corners, the wood groaning, and the sounds becoming more explicit. He didn’t go near any of the doors he walked by, nor flinch when the banging started. It was all familiar. The sounds of the knife gliding along metal, the pleas of the young woman who found themselves inside the room with him.

They had no idea what kind of person he was, or what he was bound to do to them. It was only a matter of time, and he had a lot of it. When he was younger, all he wanted to do was mold the artistic purpose of his being into the clay of human flesh and blood. He wanted to snap bones until they aligned to his vision.

It was beautiful.

Glorious.

Everything he had wanted from the day he started, to the day when he landed himself inside this machine. His reasons shifted to other purposes unlike what he had done before.

Ruben was a piece of the puzzle that he hadn’t expected, at least until the lies were revealed at gunpoint. The man barely made any move, nor any cries left his cracked lips. He was calm, almost dead inside. It was fascinating. Sebastian on the other hand, the man was too much of a wall to step around, to break, and even how much Stefano wished for him to fall the way that he wanted, Sebastian always managed to rise back to his feet.

At least until now that Sebastian wasn’t inside the machine, but his daughter, and the boy, Leslie.

The screams pushed and pulled as Stefano walked idly down the halls until they began to dissipate. He climbed the stairs to the second floor. Within the machine, he had control, not fluid as he had hoped, but enough that when he opened doors, he’d find himself in other unnatural places.

Ruben once told him the machine was connected to the mind. More specifically his own mind, at least that was the main purpose of STEM before MOBIUS got their greedy hands on it, and changed the regulation to others. They designed it so Ruben wouldn’t be able to fully function inside it if he ever entered. However, Ruben was smart, more cunning than they were, and he made sure that someone like Leslie would be able to operate it. Or anyone who had similar brain waves to Ruben. The deep trauma that set in and never fully healed, or would never heal in a lifetime. It would leave deep crevices inside the machine for anyone to use. MOBIUS made sure that someone who was younger, more moldable to control the machine without Leslie’s influence.

That brought them to Lily Castellano’s.

And gave Stefano a new purpose to hunt down the girl, and yank the power from her small hands, including Leslie, who became a piece of this game. He wasn’t sure if MOBIUS had done it intentionally, but the boy was here, and Ruben seemed desperate to get to him. 

Stefano twirled his knife, humming a song as his plans began to form inside his mind. “All I have to do is hunt for them both, and then kill Ruben. I’ll have my perfect paradise with every subject bending to my will.”

He walked down a series of halls, listening to the rhythm of screams as they returned. However, he came to a stop in the middle of the hall, his humming died as a new sound reverberated from the rooms around him.

A gun went off in one of the rooms. The ragged screams that had once torn from his throat. Other times when he was speaking quietly to someone, and knew right away it was the time when he was discharged, and later speaking to a psychiatrist about his mental anguish, and later recurring breakdowns. 

The next few doors were of a year ago when he met Sebastian, Joseph, and Kidman, when he became somewhat friends with Ruben. Their conversations were somewhat one sided. He thought that their relationships were close to what his psychiatrist had once hoped he’d have.

Sebastian was simply a detective who Stefano shared coffee with. When he walked into his office and spoke to him for almost five to ten minutes before heading out. Other times were when he talked to Joseph and Kidman. Then Ruben with his subdued comments.

He wasn’t sure what it was that pulled him toward them. Maybe his own twisted sense of humor that they were hunting after a killer that stood in front of them. He even managed to meet Sebastian and Joseph’s wives, their children, and to step into their homes and marvel over the simplicity of their relationships.

Stefano chuckled as he continued walking down the hallway until he heard the faint traces of children laughing. 

The day when they were at a park, and they were drinking coffee while hiding from the sun that soaked the lush grass, and leaves hanging above them.

Lily shared Sebastian’s brown hair, and was difficult to locate amongst the children. Leslie was older with white hair, and Kidman pushed him on the swing while Ruben and Jimenez stood beside them. 

Stefano knew that was the last day that they were all together. The lies were easy to ignore, the mask was set against his face. After that day, once the laughter had faded, and the snide half hearted comments blew into the hot summer air, Stefano’s world, and whatever lies he had given himself, fell apart when he clutched the gun and pointed it directly at both of his friends.

Stefano gripped the handle of his blade and stuck it into the wooden door. The laughter ceased besides a singular one, and he grinned into the metal of his weapon, then he grasped the bronze doorknob, twisted it, and walked inside the dark room.

Friendship.

It was fleeting, so distracting, a whim of a thing in all its various forms.

No longer would he need to hold onto it, not when he was hunting after those dear to his _friends._


End file.
